PIMCO GIS Glb Hi Yld Bd E EURH Acc

Analyst Report
Morningstar's Take
|16/04/2024

by Jeana Marie Doubell
Pimco GIS Global High Yield Bond boasts a solid investment process, but its experienced management team is still settling in after recent leadership changes.

David Forgash took over this strategy and the leadership of Pimco’s high-yield bond team from his predecessor Andrew Jessop in April 2023, before Jessop's June 2023 retirement. Forgash is an experienced investor who has been part of this strategy’s management team since 2019. However, he was not a key decision-maker here before his promotion nor does he have a public track record running global high-yield bond mandates, having most recently overseen Pimco’s leveraged-loan business in recent years. Nonetheless, this management team boasts significant firepower. Seasoned global credit specialist Sonali Pier, who oversees several high-yield mandates and the best-in-class multisector credit strategy Pimco Diversified Income, assists Forgash here alongside European high-yield expert Charles Watford. Still, the team is still settling into its new configuration, and more time is needed to gain conviction in their ability to work together at this strategy.

The managers have largely retained Jessop's disciplined and conservative approach to high-yield bond investing but have made some tweaks. They formalized a system for flagging and discussing deteriorating credits, while also increasing the size of individual credit bets (now owning up to 75 basis points of active exposure in their highest-conviction ideas, up from roughly 50 basis points in the past) to emphasize their favorite bottom-up ideas more strongly. The strategy, however, remains focused on the higher-quality end of the high-yield spectrum, as represented by its ICE Bank of America Merrill Lynch BB-B Rated Developed Markets High Yield Constrained Index. That profile explains much of the vehicle's peer-relative performance: it typically behaves defensively during credit market downdrafts and can lag during rallies (though the team's bond-picking prowess has at times helped it capitalize on rising credit markets, too, as was the case in 2017 or 2022's fourth quarter).

Forgash's tenure has gotten off to a decent start; from April 2023 through March 2024, the strategy’s 10.7% return landed comfortably in the second quartile of its peer group (though it did slightly lag its lagged ICE Bank of America Merrill Lynch BB-B Rated Developed Markets High Yield Constrained Index). While the strategy's long-term track record remains robust, we need more time to build confidence in the team at its helm given recent changes.

 
Morningstar Medalist Rating™A high-powered investment team that is still finding its groove.
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Morningstar Pillars
PeopleAverage
ParentAbove Average
ProcessAbove Average
 
Morningstar Medalist RatingMorningstar assigns the Medalist Rating to funds that are qualitatively and quantitatively assessed through manager research and algorithmic processes. The assessment turns on three key “pillars” – People, Process, and Parent – that yield an estimate of how well a fund will perform before fees but after adjusting for risk.
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